Archiving documents electronically in a computer system is becoming widely accepted as an alternative to archiving documents in a paper based system. With an electronic system, an image of the information is captured and stored in digital form by scanning a paper copy of a document or by inputting the information through a keyboard. Once the information is stored, an image of it can be accessed for editing, reviewing or merging with other similar images, or overlaid by other information. Such systems therefore may make redundant the need to store, handle and process paper documents.
As with a paper based system, one requirement of electronic document archiving systems is that they must be able to store documents containing texts, graphics or images in a form that must not be altered once the documents have been processed to a certain state. Such documents are called final form documents, examples of which include insurance policies, credit card statements and cancelled cheques.
After these documents have achieved final form and are stored in the computer system, it is often necessary to be able to review them either on a computer screen or on paper. During reviews it may be desirable to add an annotation to the document or, prior to the review, blank out certain sections (redaction). In both instances, complete fidelity of the original document must be maintained without the inefficiency of making a copy of the document.
While it is relatively easy to create a system that will allow review of final form documents in electronic storage when changes are not necessary, it has not been as easy to implement a system that will permit annotations to the documents or to blank out sections during a review without changing the contents of the original document. In the prior art, systems which allow changes, such as annotations or redactions, are of two types. First, those systems which have a facility to edit the document, i.e, add or delete information or, second, systems which allow the merging of two files where one file contains the unchanged final form document and the other file contains the annotation. As a result of the merge, the annotation is overlaid on the original document.
In systems which allow editing, the reviewer is changing the document and saving the changes with the original document. In this method the original information may be altered and it may not be easy to distinguish the original information from the added information. Consequently, the objective of creating and maintaining the integrity of a final form document is defeated. In the alternative method, using merging and overlays, annotation is achieved by linking the-final form document to another file containing the added information. With this method, while the final form document is unchanged, there is a need to manage a database containing the annotations separate from the final form document as well as to maintain the links. As the size of the archive increases, managing this system can become a problem. Hence, neither editing nor maintaining a system with a separate data base and links will provide an efficient and cost effective means to annotate or blank out sections of final form documents when large numbers of documents are involved.
Annotation and redaction requirements for digital final form documents are analogous to those found in paper based systems. Common forms of annotating and redacting paper documents are: i) writing directly on a copy of the document, ii) attaching a note to a page using, for example, a Post-It. type note or iii) highlighting areas of a copy of the page with a transparent or opaque marker. If an annotation is attached to the page overlaying the document, the reviewer may not be able to see the underlying part of the document unless the annotation can be lifted up. Similarly, if an opaque highlighter is used, that section of the document may be obscured. Further, in some documents, a reviewer may wish to annotate a previous annotation, or different reviewers may add multiple annotations. Or, where many reviewers are involved, it may be desirable to hide some of the annotations or restrict access to view certain annotations. The end result is that an annotated final form document may have a series of annotations to which there is a hierarchy of access to each annotation.